From Safety Struggles to Success: Rafter 9 Oilfield Services’ Journey
INTRODUCTION TO RAFTER 9
Rafter 9 Oilfield Services is a tank truck company based in Brooks, Alberta. Their team hauls production to and from the Brooks and Medicine Hat areas, including produced water, emulsion, and clean oil. Over their 22 years in business, they have grown their operations to meet the growing needs of their clients.
The team has 20 employees, including 6 operators who run 16 trucks. Owner Derek Nyman oversees the day-to-day operations of the company and acts as fleet manager for safety and compliance.
Historically, The company has worked primarily with junior companies. However, many of these companies have started to expand and evolve, which has fueled Rafter 9’s own expansion to meet demand.
Owner Of Rafter 9, Derek Nyman
CHALLENGE
As a small shop with limited capacity, Rafter 9’s main challenge was figuring out where to begin in terms of implementing safety standards. Between managing the growing business and client relationships, Derek had limited ability to enforce safety standards himself. In the company’s earlier years, it was easy for safety to take a backseat since they were such a small team. However, when Rafter 9 doubled in size, the problems with this approach came to the forefront.
Equipment compliance and safety documentation began to slip, and there was no room for Derek to manage the company’s growing needs while keeping on top of his other duties. The company needed someone who could come in and take ownership of ensuring safety standards were present and properly followed. They also needed someone with a strong voice who could encourage buy-in with team members who had grown accustomed to a lax approach to safety.
SOLUTION
In the Fall of 2022, Safety Buzz Campus (SBC) began working with Rafter 9 Oilfield Services to bring their safety and compliance standards up to speed. SBC started by re-vamping the company’s safety manual, which had a lot of extraneous information and largely wasn’t useful to the team. This included implementing a set of working rules that the team was expected to follow in order to ensure safe practices.
They then made strides to ensure employees followed compliance with customers and with day-to-day safety procedures. Anyone who needed more training to reach the expected standards was sent to SBC’s training school, where SBC offered courses that brought employees up to industry expectations. From there, SBC led Rafter 9 through the process of implementing daily hazard assessments and monthly safety meetings.
All of this work was fully managed and implemented by SBC, who absorbed responsibility for ensuring safety and compliance were being properly addressed within the team. SBC also took ownership of maintaining the company’s SiteDocs, keeping track of drivers’ certifications and hazard assessments.
RESULTS
Rafter 9 Oilfield Services has already seen impressive results since bringing SBC on as their safety partner. The introduction of safety standards and strategies has yielded reductions in the rate of incidents, maintenance issues, and abuses of equipment.
“Just as we were implementing SBC, Murphy’s Law, we ended up having 2 or 3 wrecks. But we were able to do the reports right away.” Derek notes. “But since then, we haven’t had any real issues.”
Should a large issue occur in the future, Derek has seen first-hand how SBC delivers on their promise to provide exceptional safety support, as evidenced by a minor issue that affected the company. “Somebody got sideswiped, and SBC was there within 15 minutes,” Derek recalls. “Cops were there, we wrote our report, and then it was done.”
Another area of impact was in the culture of the organization. At first, implementing new standards was what Derek described as a “tug-of-war.”
“We really had to dig our heels in and keep pushing forward, Once they realized this wasn’t a flash in the pan, slowly people jumped on board.” ”
Despite the slow initial uptake, a safety mindset has now become a part of Rafter 9’s day-to-day. Between daily hazard assessments, intentional discussions around safety, and leadership buy-in, Derek shares that “the drivers are being more mindful.”
The services provided by SBC and the results seen by Rafter 9 have also impacted the client side of the business. “My clients love it,” Derek notes. “The potential to get new clients is there because there are certain standards of safety for each customer. And what SBC is doing is making it the top standard. So, I can get those top-grade customers.
CONCLUSION
In just a short time, Rafter 9 Oilfield Services has gone on a transformative journey toward enhanced safety and compliance. When Rafter 9 faced the challenge of maintaining safety standards and documentation amidst their rapid growth, SBC stepped in as the solution, bringing expertise, guidance, and a strong voice to lead the way.
“Not only are they helping us, but they’re also pushing, encouraging, keeping us on task, and keeping us focused,” Derek notes. As a growing company, this gives Rafter 9 a competitive edge in advancing its own business aspirations.
Reducing incidents, increasing capacity, and ensuring top-quality compliance have taken this business to the next level. “It is the law to have sufficient safety,” Derek notes. “And Safety Buzz Campus was able to get us there.”
